Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-03-07
ON THE RAIL.
A Train Falls Through a
Trestle
INA RAGING TORRENT BELOW.
Several Persons Lose Their
Lives and Their Prop
erty.

Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD
ST. LOUIS, March 6.-The railroad &C.
cident on the Iron Mountain Railway,
near DeSoto, Mo-, which was very
briefly referred to late last night, while
not at all unusual in regard to the fatal
casualties, proves to have been quite re.
markable in respect to several circum i.
stances which attended it. 1t occurred
at Victoria, thirty miles south of here,
little after 10 o'clock, and was ocea.
stoned by the giving way, under the
train, of trestle which crossed the
Joachim creek at that point. The train
was the Texas express, and con-
sisted .of baggage, express and
mail cars, a smoker, two
passenger coaches and four seepers 8,
carrying about one hundred and thirty
passengers. A heavy rain had fallen ali
day and the creek was much swollen.
At Hemutite, the first station this side of
the trestle, the engineer received orders
to run cautiously, as the rain had been
heavy and the creek was over its banks.
Engineer Kelly says he ran slowly be.
yond that point and both he and his
fireman, William Hach, watched.
the track very carefully. As he
approached the trestle Kelly observed
that the track was entirely straight
and level, showing nothing wrong, and
he went on without the slightest fear or
hesitation; but when his engine reached
about the middle of the trestle he felt
the whole structure sinking beneath,
him. Iu an instant he opened the valve
operating the airbrakes full width and
brought the train to SO quick a stop that
the front end of one of the cars was
crushed in by the sudden shock. This
saved the coaches, bat the baggage,
mail, express and smoking cars went into
the raging torrent below, carrying with
them all ON board. Engineer Kelly and
fireman Hach went down with the
engine and were submerged in
the flood. Kelly, in his strug-
giles to free himself, found that one
of his feet was held fast, but at the same
instant, and just as he realized that he
must drown. the engine turned over. his
foot was released and he came to the
surface. Seizing passing log, he clung
to it desperately and was swept down
the torrent and lodged against tree,
$50 yards below, with scarcely
strength enough to move. He
clasped his legs and arms around
the limbs of the tree, became un.
conscious and was not restored until
two or three hours afterward. He had
been taken from the tree and kindly
cared for in a house in Victoria. His
face and head were severely cut. two of
his toes cut from one of his feet, and he
was badly bruised in various parts of his
body. He will recover. Firemf Hach
was carried about 500 yards down the
stream, lodged in mass Of brush or
drift, and was rescued soon after the flood
subsidized. The postal car was swept away
sone distance and as the water rushed
through it from end to end the mail was
literally washed out and it is now scat.
tered over miles of territory or embed.
ded in the mud of the creek. 1t is re-
garded as a total loss, the whole of it
being completely soaked and the
addresses of the letters obliterated.
Postal clerks Mccullough, Shaffer
and Ryan were badly bruised
and almost drowned, and being stripped
for work, they lost all their clothes,
their gold watches and about $3.50
in money, which were carried away by
the food. The smoker, which is said
to have contained some twenty persons,
was swept down about 800 feet below
the trestle, but all its occupants are be.
lieved to have been saved. They sue
ceeded in getting outside of the Car and
clupg to its top until they were rescued.
There is some doubts about the baggage.
man and express messenger being saved,
but later dispatches from the wreck say
that no train men were lost.
The cause of the unprecedented flood
is believed to have been cloudburst,
which took place late in the evening and
filled the creek, which runs between
rugged hills for miles, SO full that it be-
came raging torrent with current OF
over twenty miles per hour and swept
everything before it.
A full list of the casualties cannot be
obtained, but. aside from Henry Byron.
of jamestown, N. Y, who was found
drowned in the smoker, and Byrnes, q
brakeman, who had foot dislocated, no
one other than those mentioned above
were in any way seriously injured.
Nearly one.half of those in the smoker
lost their clothes, they being torn from
their persons, either in getting out of
the car or by the rushing water through
which they were dragged ashore by
means of rope. A farmer named An.
drew White, of Bailey's station, did
heroic work in saving passengers. He
swan several times to the smoker,
and each time returned with one of
the unfortunates who were clinging
to the roof of the car. Several of the
passengers in the sleepers also aided ma.
terially in the work. Conductor Guion.
of the train, and all of the train crew
labored like Trojans in rescuing those on
the car. The mail is said to have been
the largest ever sent over the road, and
the losses will fall heavily on this city,
where about three.quarters of the matter
originated, An express package, with
out address or anything on it by which
it can be identified, containing $37 900,
was found to day, and it is not unlikely
that others will be discovered in the bed
of the creek or in the woods.
Burning of Eiouring Mill.
ST. PAUL, March GA special to the
Pioneer Press from Hudson, Wis, says
The extensive fouring.mill plant of O
Burkhart, north of this city, burned this
morning. Loss, 500, 900. The mil
was valued at $4,000; insurance
$4,000. The elevator and warehouse
were valued at $4,000; insured fo
S22, 500. In the elevator were 35,00l
bushels of wheat. A number of smalle
buildings were burned. The owner viii
rebuild at once.
Senators Wo, king for Brooks.
SAN FRANCISCO, March GA Call
special to. might from Washington says